THE Royal Scots were bound for Gallipoli, but they were cut down by horrific tragedy in their homeland.

And today, 100 years to the day after Britain’s worst railway disaster, Princess Anne and Nicola Sturgeon led tributes to the 216 men and boys of the regiment – and 12 other victims – who were killed at Quintinshill.

The Princess Royal laid a wreath and the First Minister met veterans from the Royal Scots Association. Present-day soldiers from the Royal Highland Fusiliers fired a gun salute to the dead.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal lays a wreath at the Royal Scots Cairn at Gretna Green (Image: MOD/Cpl Jamie Peters RLC)

At 6.49am on May 22, 2015, 498 Royal Scots soldiers were on a packed troop train to Liverpool, where a ship waited to take them to war. They were from the 7th Battalion, raised in Leith.

The railway system was creaking under the wartime strain of moving huge numbers of men. The train the Royal Scots were given was poorly built of wood, and lit by gas.

It was heading south at speed, with the soldiers in its cramped compartments chatting or playing cards, when it hurtled head-on into a local passenger train stopped on the line at Quintinshill, near Gretna.

The signallers in the box at Quintinshill had failed to warn the troop train driver it was there.

Many soldiers died in the impact as carriages were smashed and hurled on to the neighbouring northbound line.

But worse was to come. A minute later, an express train travelling north to Glasgow hit the wreckage on the track, and the gas used to light the troop train turned it into a fireball.

The blaze was so ferocious that only 83 of the soldiers killed could be identified.

Reports claimed some victims were shot so they would not be burned alive. Survivors had limbs amputated in the wreckage so rescuers – including their fellow soldiers – could get them out.

One report from the time said: “The survivors at once got to work to help their stricken comrades.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon meets a member of the Royal Scots Association at the service (Image: MOD/Cpl Jamie Peters RLC)

Local people also rushed to the scene to help, with some driving from as far as Carlisle.

Only 62 men from the battalion escaped unhurt. Incredibly, a few ended up being sent to Gallipoli to fight.

The Royal Scots website puts the number of soldiers killed at 216, including a sergeant who died of his wounds in 1917. The 12 others killed were the driver and fireman of the troop train, a mother and her baby son who were on the local train, and two Navy officers, three officers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, two civilians and a sleeping car attendant from the Glasgow express.

The two signallers were jailed for culpable homicide but were freed the following year and given work back on the railways. Some historians speculate that they were repaid with jobs for taking the blame for the disaster.

Anne and Sturgeon honoured all the victims today at the Old Parish Church in Gretna Green. A ceremony will also be held today in Leith, and the disaster was remembered on Thursday in Larbert, Stirlingshire, the town the train had left from.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland fire a volley in salute to the dead and injured servicemen (Image: MOD/Cpl Jamie Peters RLC)